


The Search for Bastion

by FlightOfInsanity



Category: Halo (Video Games) & Related Fandoms
Genre: Forerunners, Gen, and not expect me to adopt it as my own, you can't tease me with a vague forerunner in the game
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-07
Updated: 2016-06-07
Packaged: 2018-07-12 22:30:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7125052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlightOfInsanity/pseuds/FlightOfInsanity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Forerunner who left journals everywhere in Halo 5 had to start his search somewhere.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Search for Bastion

“So?” Cadence grinned eagerly at his audience. He was going to pitch his idea for an expedition to search for Bastion to the Council later and he wanted an opinion on his presentation before he did.

“What did you think?”

Silence stretched on in place of an answer and Cadence nervously shifted his weight from foot to foot and clasped his hands together to keep from tapping them on the desk in front of him.

“It was, um…” Ash cast a glance to the ancilla, who was currently projected to one side, as if hoping it would answer instead. The ancilla pointedly ignored the glance and said nothing.

Cadence’s shoulders slumped. “You hated it.”

“No!”

“It was terrible, wasn’t it?” He slouched heavily into the chair and stared up at the ceiling. “I knew I should’ve spent less time on the lore and more time on the star maps and the planning, but I got so caught up in the historical records. I mean, did you know there were _two_ full-rate Promethean Commanders at the end of the Ecumene? _Two!_ All the earlier records show only a single supreme commander and–”

“Cadence,” Ash said firmly. They knew they needed to curb the history lesson before Cadence got in too deep.

The Builder cut himself off with a half-hearted grin, but it quickly dropped into a frown and a disappointed sigh. Growing up, he’d become familiar with their world’s old legends – ancient war and heavenly fire; worlds that orbited stars instead of containing them; a mystical haven known as Bastion. Until recently, no one had realized any part of the stories could be true – the original residents, the refugees (as he now understood), had hidden and sealed away and tried to delete the records of things called Flood and Halo and of the collapse of the old society.

A single ancilla, now slightly degraded, had managed to hoard some of the information away from the old Builders and seal itself off in the central data core. Cadence had stumbled across the ancilla by complete accident one day while exploring deeper layers of the planet. It had taken days to coax the program out of its self-imprisonment and weeks to get it to tell him what it knew.

He’d always been fascinated by the stories and had always hoped they were actually true, but until he found the ancilla he’d had nowhere to start looking.

But now. Now he had data to back up his theories and ideas. Sure, some of the details were long gone – he still had no idea what ‘Flood’ was referring to or why it was denoted as a name – but there had to be other old Forerunner stations out there and surely they would have more information. Maybe they could even find other Forerunners who would know things they didn’t.

The only hurdle left was getting permission and support from the Council. But if Ash and the ancilla thought it wasn’t convincing…

“It’s not that your presentation was _bad_ ,” Ash said. “Just that it was very… you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You’re just very…” Ash trailed off with an indistinct mumble and waved a hand, vaguely gesturing at all of Cadence.

“I believe what your friend means is that you are very exuberant and idealistic,” the ancilla said, finally deciding to provide an opinion.

“And that’s… bad?” Cadence asked.

“Not necessarily, but you are going to be presenting this idea to Builders, not Seekers. The Builder rate of the old Ecumene was at the top of the political hierarchy and those who initially sought refuge within this shield world were very keen to keep their status and structure, no matter what. They are going to be interested in the tangible benefits of such an expedition, if there are any, and how to use them to further their own power.”

“Great,” Cadence mumbled.

“But hey, that’s what we’re here for, right?” Ash said, trying to lighten the mood a little. “We’ll help you come up with some “tangible benefits” to throw to the Councilors and we’ll be with you when you present!”

“ _You’ll_ be with him,” the ancilla corrected. It had no intention of going anywhere near the Council or letting them get close to its records.

“ _I’ll_ be right there with you,” they corrected. “And it’ll be fine, yeah?”

Cadence took a steadying breath and gave himself a little mental boost. They could do this – they would convince the Council and they would get permission to take a ship and supplies and they would find Bastion and learn the rest of their history.

They had this.

 

* * *

 

They did not have it.

The Council shot down the proposal without even hearing the entire presentation. Cadence and Ash had both tried to argue the decision and plead with the Council to at least hear the rest of the idea, but they were none-too-kindly escorted out of the room and then the building. The doors had slid closed with a definitive thump and no amount of knocking or shouting had gotten them to reopen.

Disappointed, the two had retreated to the long-forgotten chambers the ancilla called home. Cadence sat on the floor, idly flipping through his notes and expedition plans. Ash stood, resting a hip on a control bank and not knowing what to do to help.

The ancilla flickered into view, sitting idly on its pedestal.

“They wouldn’t even listen,” Cadence muttered.

The ancilla darkened a shade in sympathy; it had known this was the most likely outcome. It flickered a little as it fought its own indecision. A ship was not the only way to leave the shield world. It was the _safest_ option, but not the only one.

“There is… another option,” it started. Cadence looked up, hopeful but wary.

“The larger Forerunner constructs were designed with a portal transit network that should allow passage from one installation to another. Theoretically, one could use this network to leave a shield world and travel to another without needing a slipspace-capable vessel.”

Cadence and Ash looked at one another, confused.

“Why tell us this now?”

“The Councilors, assuming they know of the attempted data purge, will know you got your information from me. It is highly unlikely they are going to let you go back to your regular life and duties without first trying to get my location from you,” the ancilla explained. “Stealing a ship with so little a crew would be nearly impossible; accessing a transit terminal, however, is much more feasible.”

“You want out of here, too, don’t you?” Ash asked.

“Yes.”

“Would it be dangerous?” Cadence asked.

“It would,” the ancilla said. “There is no way to properly know the conditions of any of the other installations, or if the transit system is fully operational.”

“What do we need to do?”

“Cadence, wait,” Ash said. “Think about this for a minute.”

“I have thought about it,” he snapped. “I’ve been thinking about this for most of my life, Ash. So it’s not a ship, but it’s still something.”

Ash turned to the ancilla. “What happens if the transit system isn’t fully operational?”

It flickered again, not wanting to answer. “It could drop us anywhere.”

“‘Anywhere’ meaning ‘potentially in deep space’?”

“… yes.”

They turned back to Cadence. “Do you see, Cadence? You could die before you even got anywhere! A ship at least you could direct, but a faulty transit system?”

Cadence jumped up and strode over, resting his hands on Ash’s shoulders. They were a little taller than he was, so it was a bit awkward, but he felt it would help him get his point across.

“Ash, this is exactly what I’ve wanted – a way out of here to go explore. Think about everything we could learn if we can find other installations, other ancillas, other _Forerunners_.” He stepped back and gestured at the room around them. “We’ve been living blind inside this world and our _Council_ has been more than happy to keep it that way. We’re stagnating and no one even realizes it.”

They looked at him sadly. “I’m not going to change your mind, am I?”

“No.”

“And you’ll just sneak off and do this regardless of what I say, won’t you?”

Cadence shrugged a shoulder.

Ash sighed, which Cadence took to be as close to agreement as he would get from them.

“So what now,” he asked the ancilla.

“First you will need armor. Remove your outer robes and stand over there,” it said, indicating a portion of the floor that looked no different from any other spot.

Cadence looked confused but did as he was told. He was about to ask what he was supposed to do next when portions of the floor slid away and ribbons of material floated up and out. As they moved around him he turned to follow, trying to see what they were doing.

“Hold still.”

He stopped turning and awkwardly held his arms out, trying to hold as still as possible as the material wound itself around him and molded to his body; it was slimmer than he’d expected, but still felt substantial. The dark grey material was accented with lines of silver and glowed a soft blue where the armor gapped. He stiffened in alarm when he felt something brush the back of his mind.

“The armor is just establishing the neural interface,” the ancilla said, correctly assuming the cause of his reaction. “It will be able to anticipate your needs and adjust itself accordingly.”

“Oh,” Cadence said, stretching his arms up and watching the armor adjust for the movement. “Neat!”

“Come to the console and I will transfer to your armor.”

“You’ll what?”

“All armor is capable of housing an ancilla. Personal armor and ancillas were, at one point, standard for all Forerunners. The type of ancilla and the style and capabilities of the armor were dictated by rate and profession, but only the youngest manipulars ever regularly went without.”

Another thing that had been taken away and hidden from them.

Cadence went to the console and the ancilla transferred over to the armor, setting up its own connections to his mind. He felt himself shudder involuntarily at the new intrusion.

“Apologies,” the ancilla said inside his mind.

“You ok?” Ash asked, concern obvious on their face.

“I’m good,” he said. “It just feels weird having someone else in your head.”

He flexed his hands in the new gloves and then stretched his arms out. “How do I look?”

Ash squinted critically, looking him up and down, before jabbing at the armor a few times.

“You look… fancy,” they said. “Are you sure this will actually protect you?”

Cadence opened his mouth to answer, but the ancilla’s voice resonated from some indeterminate source in the armor and cut him off. “It is a Warrior combat skin variant and should provide sufficient protection from most threats while still being sleek enough to allow full freedom of movement.”

Ash didn’t look convinced, but they let it go. “So where’s this terminal?”

“Hang on,” Cadence said. “Aren’t you getting any armor?”

“A ship I was fine with, but this is a little too much for me.”

“But–”

“Besides, you’ll need someone to keep the Council off your tail for a while, right?”

Cadence didn’t know what to say to that – he hadn’t thought about the Council being able to track him once he left.

Ash clapped their hands together. “So, terminal?”

“Not far,” the ancilla said, providing directions for the pair to follow.

The new room was fairly plain and simple. A small control console stood near one end and a short distance beyond it was a mostly round framework, like a circular doorframe with no door. The ancilla guided him through bringing the apparatus up to power and inputting coordinates it had retained that should lead to another installation, though it wasn’t sure which one.

The framework hummed as the air in the center sparked. A small whorl flickered into existence twice before it flashed into a large blue and black vortex that seemed to stabilize and hold its shape. Cadence stared into the nothingness, suddenly a little nervous.

“Well, that’s certainly… um…”

Ash gave his shoulder a reassuring little shake. “You don’t have to do this, you know.”

He drew in a deep breath. “I do, though. We need to know. We deserve to know what’s been lost.” He put his hand over Ash’s and looked them in the eye. “I’m going to find Bastion and I’m going to find the rest of the Forerunners and I’m going to come back.”

Ash sighed and pulled Cadence into a tight embrace, bumping their foreheads together before letting him go.

They gave a pained half-smile. “Go on then. I’ll be here when you get back.”

Cadence returned the smile and stepped over to the portal. The ancilla triggered his armor and a helmet folded up and around his head. He hesitated a moment before closing his eyes and stepping through into the rushing dark.

**Author's Note:**

> I may write more of his adventures later and add them as additional chapters, but for right now this is it.
> 
> ~
> 
> The idea for their world/why they wouldn't know what Bastion was is or whether or not it even exists is that this is a shield world inhabited primarily by Builder refugees. And the rate that seems the most like they would be willing to try to bury the past and try to cover up their shame and mistakes would be Builders who were suddenly forced out of power and (probably) would want to get it back anyway they could.
> 
> Easily accessible data would give everything away, so that had to go. Same with the personal ancillas who would either retain their own records from before the Halos fired or would notice a sudden absence of data from the world's data core; so armor and ancillas would both have to disappear.
> 
> Once the armor was gone, Forerunners there would have gone back to more "normal" cycles of sleeping/waking and potentially shorter lifespans, so you could end up with Forerunners 100,000+ years down the line who would only know of things like "Bastion" and "Halo" through handed down stories.


End file.
